How Unrealistic Body Standards Are Affecting Today’s Youth?

According to the common sense media report, a teen spends 9 hours on social media per day while it consumes only 10 mins talking to their parents on average. During these nine hours, your teen gets lots of messages of having a lean or ideal body.

These unrealistic body standards of beauty can make a significant impact on your teen’s body image. Today’s social media is portraying a negative effect on today’s youth.

THE MESSAGES TEENS RECEIVE FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

Positive body image and healthy self-esteem are essential for a child’s health and well-being. The social media, people around us, and modern culture all impact our body image. In today’s culture, teenagers and children see those exposed photos that show being lean, thin, and muscular as a standard of beauty, style, class, and masculinity. Movies, TV, social media, magazines have a lot of these images.

Again and again, seeing these images is linked to low body image and feel that our bodies are not okay. These attitudes can affect a child’s self-esteem and negatively influence their mental well-being and health.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCE

Youth waste much time on social media and young people as well. They’re also more susceptible to low self-esteem, self-confidence, peer pressure, and ill mental health.

Several studies say that increased social media use gives anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, eating concerns( Bulimia nervosa when you have an eating disorder and anorexia nervosa when someone reduces their food intake to get slim). There is a lot of suicide risk.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE SEARCH OF PERFECTION

We face the pressure of perfection, be it intentionally or not, be it getting a good, lean, muscular body, getting good grades, being the perfect child, partner, parent, friend, and leading the ideal life.

Today the quest for perfection is everywhere, especially on social media. But it also exists in our family and friends. We used to see these perfect bodies only on the internet, but now we can easily see it in our society, family, and friends. It is not just stars or celebrities promoting a culture of perfection, but people we know, share pictures and stories of #LivingTheirBestLife.

To change a society that raises competition among young people to get the perfect body, we must teach our children, from the beginning, to restrict social media use for an unlimited number of hours.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF NEGATIVE OR POOR BODY IMAGE

It is essential to fight negative body image because it can lead to shyness, depression, anxiety, and self-consciousness in close relationships. The majority of girls and women are unsatisfied and unhappy with their bodies, and many take strict measures to change their bodies to make them lean.

 

HOW TO CONTROL SOCIAL MEDIA’S HARMFUL EFFECTS

Many of us see ourselves scrolling through social media for a long time, and before we know it, hours have passed by, and then we feel bad for it. Many teens don’t feel anything wrong. But the excess use of social media gives several adverse, harmful effects on the youth, such as extreme loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

To overcome this problem, you must discuss with your children and teach them what’s wrong and good for them. Discuss the sharp and harsh realities that skinny or underweight models and overly-muscular actors experience. Please talk about the drastic, severe, and unhealthy measures many people take to get these body figures, despite its health damage.

Someone wise once said, “DON’T USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO IMPRESS PEOPLE, USE IT TO IMPACT PEOPLE.” ( A )

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